In any discussion of the most iconic campy horror movies, The Evil Dead is an obvious entry. It’s got the perfect mix of ridiculous plot, fountains of gore, demonic creatures, and over the top characters like Ash Williams, played by Bruce Campbell. The winning formula was replicated over the course of two sequels, The Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness, and the franchise has cemented its reputation as a cult classic.
The 2013 remake titled Evil Dead marked a pretty dramatic shift in tone, with a grittier and darker reimagining of the franchise and a new protagonist named Mia. It wasn’t remembered as fondly as the original trilogy though, even though at one point there were plans for a sequel, one in which Ash would team up with Mia to kick demon ass.
And while we didn’t get that version of the film, we did get the Ash vs. Evil Dead TV series. In it, Campbell plays an older version of the Deadite-hunting hero who accidentally brings about the demon apocalypse on Earth once again. For all intents and purposes, the show was a hit and fans were understandably upset when it was canceled.
Ray Santiago, who played Ash’s sidekick Pablo in the series, believes that the Starz program could have endured far longer if it had aired on a more popular streaming platform. The actor shared his thoughts on capturing a larger audience and keeping the show alive during Mainframe Comic Con 2.0, saying:
“I loved the home that we had on Starz, but it was so limited in its viewership. We could have had a bigger audience were we on a platform like Hulu or Amazon or Netflix, but because we were on this cable subscription, it really limited the audience. Because as the show got on to Netflix, we started to see that people were still watching seasons one through three and were really into it. It was sad because we had this greatness and it didn’t get the praise that it should have gotten. And, personally, I was really looking forward to seeing where things were gonna go with the show. Just because we had set up so many relationships, it was just all there to play with.”
There’s also the notion to consider that on a different network the final product might not have been as wildly unrestrained and the production team may not have enjoyed the same level of creative freedom, something that Campbell has mentioned in the past. The worst part was the fact that the show ended with a major cliffhanger, one which promised to take the story into strange and fascinating new directions. We’ll probably never get to see what the writers had in store for Ash Williams, but at least it looks like the franchise will live on.
Tell us, though, would you be excited for a new season of Ash vs. Evil Dead, or are you holding out for a cinematic sequel? Let us know in the comments section below.
